Practically five years in the making, Gottacon is making the leap to become a fully realized convention for gamers and the general public alike. This event will now take place at the Victoria Conference Center, running from February 28th to March 2. Nothing has been said for those leap years—does it mean four days of fun than three in 2016? When considering the rate this show is growing, that is possible. Certain conventions in the States have grown from two days to four because of their popularity.
This event is for the gamer in us all. Whether that be with board games like CLUE, role-playing in the fantastic realms of Dungeons and Dragons, card games like Magic the Gathering, miniature battles with Game Workshop’s Warhammer or video games à la Starcraft, this show has it all. This news is particularly exciting for the local gaming community and this author has seen this event grow from its humble beginnings (behind the scenes and in front of) by simply catering to the dedicated gamer crowd than to make it a side-show attraction.
And visitors to the Capital Region have an event to check out in the Winter season. Not only is The Clipper and the Black Ball Ferry conveniently located nearby to transport State-side visitors to this convention’s new location but also, the budget-conscious can bus in from Vancouver or upper Vancouver Island to this garden city via Pacific Coach Lines. The Conference center is right next door! And the choices of hotels nearby are diverse.
The best advice to anyone thinking of traveling to head to this convention is to go green. Most of the major public transit routes stop in front of the building, and taxi service will always be nearby.
Without a doubt, the board of directors governing the City of Victoria and the developers from the local video game sector have been watching this little convention grow. Because of their involvement, the number of video game demonstrations will be expanded upon. In a statement by Mayor Dean Fortin on Gottacon’s website, “The video gaming industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the technology sector and is a key element of our local economy. I am very excited that this notable event will take place downtown close to the 19 studios where so much of this creativity is born.”
As for whether or not that means the big studios like Sony or Nintendo will follow suit because of Microsoft Studios‘ involvement, that still remains to be seen. Further announcements will be made on Gottacon’s website as new details get released. The team has a lot of work to do in the four months leading up to this event. The staff of Gottacon gave thanks to the Victoria Video Game CEO Alliance (DJArts Games, Kixeye, InLight Entertainment, Kano/Apps, GameHouse, Zynga, Tiny Mob Games and Race Rocks 3D) for making this giant step up possible.
Without the fans support to help Gottacon grow and now these developer’s support, this broad spectrum convention would not have evolved to what it is now, a tour de force of the local geek culture scene. Kudos has to go to the two chiefs who runs this event, Evan Hatch and Carson Upton, for keeping many gamer’s ideal dream mecca alive!
